Everyone’s a Critic

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At the Movies

“We are still suffering the effects of 34 years of censorship. Sex and romance on the American screen remain in a state of separation. Our love scenes are the least convincing in the Western world. Actresses remain second-class citizens, and our films (good and bad) are almost entirely concerned with external, public life, with few devoted to the internal movements of the soul. These are all legacies of the [1934 Production] Code. . . .

“For 19 out of 20 years, starting in 1934, a reactionary anti-Semitic goon named Joseph Breen, who had the story sense of a drooling idiot, controlled screen content in the United States. He and his successors were a calamity, and it would have been better if the Code had never happened.” 

—Mick LaSalle, film critic, “Ask Mick LaSalle,” SFGate.com, October 2014

• Editorial Comment: Jeez, Mick. That’s pretty mealy-mouth. Say what you think.


PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Summer Dream








TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
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